Adewale
Many people continue to go hungry while the nation’s earnings remain on the fluctuating mode for a number of factors. Taking the lead among the reasons is the poor investment in farming as well as the subsistence practice of agriculture by many peasant farmers. In other words, majority of those who engage in real or full-time agriculture are usually semi-educated fellows that still use primitive working tools to cultivate crops.
Unfortunately, the practice of farming in the 21st Century has been described as a serious business that needs financial support, mechanised aid and the use of manpower under a comfortable atmosphere to thrive.
Making this submission was Professor Kayode Adewumi, a Professor of Soil and Water Engineering and the Dean, College of Engineering (COLENG) of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State. Professor Adewumi observed that presently, people were no longer interested in farming because nobody wants to bend their back tiling and clearing the soil.
According to him, majority of people that have the money for farming prefer to go into fishery, piggery and poultry farming, which seems to require less energy to carry out.
According to him, “Old farmers that we have today barely farm to sustain their families, people are not comfortable with the drudgery in the physical production of crops”. Based on this, he called on the government to open up large hectares of land in every geo-political zone and practice mechanised farming.
This arrangement should be carried out in every local government with the required equipment, tractors and combine harvester such that they monitor what every local government is producing. He charged the government, its agricultural agencies and individual farmers to be engaged and be committed to crop farming in order to get out of the problem of unforeseen poverty in the future.
While making reference to FUNAAB, he said the University had got everything to thrive on and be in the fore-front of crop production that should be able to feed the citizenery. Sharing his research works and its benefit to the environment, Professor Adewumi said he had worked on the Drip Irrigation Project, a 3-year project, funded by the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), which is meant to conserve water for crop production. He also revealed that under his supervision, irrigation software had been written and is waiting to be patented.
Professor Adewumi said efforts had been made within its powers to solving food problems. This, he said, informed the decision at sponsoring delegates to the Republic of Benin to understudy a one-man farm that had become a source of tourist attraction to many,
who visited the country. The outcome of that visit, according to him, was that it transformed the Directorate of University Farms (DUFARMS) into a big office in FUNAAB. On returning, he said proposals were written and designs were made on how to extend more on what they saw, but the University was limited by funds.
He described the Nigeria land as a blessed one where irrigation can be practiced in any part of the country, drawing examples from the nation of Israel; Professor Adewumi said irrigation was their (Israelis) main source of livelihood, which they practiced successfully considering their type of land. He went further to stress that if irrigation was to be fully practiced in Nigeria, the divers nature of the country should be considered, as much money will be spent in the Southern part of the country for clearing before irrigation can be carried out unlike the North where less will be spent, considering the nature of the land.
As a way of helping the country to get out of food crisis in the nearest future, Professor Adewumi said the government should make agriculture its priority. According to him, “If agriculture is the priority of the leaders, something meaningful will be done. Everything depends on the individual that is there, to make it work at the end of the day”.
He also frowned at what he described as the over-dependence on government for everything as it is obtainable in the country, noting that “The orientation they gave us in the country is that they have made us to be living on government”.
Finally, he charged the government to empower the teeming youths to go into agriculture by providing the necessary mechanisation to work with. No doubt, series of studies had been carried out that suggested massive investment in agriculture as a way out of the nation’s depressed economy.
But who wants to go into farming? Your guess is as good as mine. As a matter of practicability, the necessary incentives should go along with the numerous blueprint to transform our agricultural focus. Apart from higher educational institutions, research centres and state ministries of agriculture should endeavour to match policy with action by truly empowering young school leavers. That way, agriculture would be seen as a big business and not a job for the rural dwellers!
